Section archive - Programs & Practicum

The objective for this study was to gain new knowledge about the experience of teachers in the early stage of professional learning community (PLC) development. This study reports findings from semi-structured focus group interviews with teachers in an urban/suburban high school after one year of school-wide professional development introducing the PLC as a school-wide practice. The authors conclude that The authors claim that as long as PLC work is perceived by teachers as a professional development option that they may choose to embrace or ignore, then systemwide change is unlikely to occur. The authors suggest that by establishing an urgent cause, the leader may then offer assistance to the staff in addressing the problem in the form of an initiative to cultivate collaborative reflective practice with the goal of transforming the school into a PLC.

The purpose of this study was to examine the various representations of the author's development as a beginning teacher educator offered through his methodology of self-study through narrative inquiry. Analysis of these narratives revealed how certain ongoing, and at times paradoxical, tensions influenced the author's thinking about his initial practices as a teacher educator. At the same time as he was refining his vision for social studies and coming to understand the potential significance of his teaching, he was also, sometimes paradoxically, exhibiting fear of regression in his work, displaying apathy or exhaustion, exhibiting frustration and restlessness, and struggling to navigate interpersonal relationships with his students.

This article reviews the efforts of the teacher education program at the University of Colorado Denver to examine the extent to which culturally responsive practices were evident in their program and to provide professional development supports to faculty as they undertook course revision work. External evaluation of the program highlighted: a near absence of community-based learning experiences for teacher candidates, a glaring concern regarding their limited conceptualization of social justice and diversity, and a need for enhanced efforts at recruitment of diverse teacher candidates. The authors describe how professional development was designed and implemented and ensuing programmatic changes. The authors conclude with recommendations for such programmatic changes.

The purpose of this article is twofold. Firstly, to examine the pre-service teachers’ knowledge of mathematical content, and the effectiveness of a pre-service mathematics curriculum subject in improving that knowledge. Secondly, to compare this knowledge with that of the students whom they would be teaching. The results showed that many pre-service teachers entered this teacher education program with very poor levels of mathematical content knowledge. However, the preservice teachers improved their mathematical knowledge after participating in the pre-service teacher education unit on mathematics education.